Medvedev ordered instant messengers to check information about users

The Russian authorities have obliged messengers to obtain information about their users from cellular operators. The corresponding document was signed by Dmitry Medvedev

Dmitry Medvedev
(Photo: Mikhail Klimentev / Reuters)

The head of government signed a decree on the identification of instant messengers by phone number. The document with its text is published on the official portal of legal information.

According to the decree, messengers must check the subscriber information from the cellular operator, who must provide data within 20 minutes from the moment of receiving the request from the messenger. If the operator does not provide information about the user or notify him that he is not in the database, the identification will not be considered as passed.

The mobile operator will have to enter into its database information about the applications used by the subscriber and a unique user identification code. The decree comes into force after six months.

Deferred storage: how operators began to comply with the “law of spring”

Earlier, the head of Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov, told Izvestia that, thanks to the new rules for checking messenger users, a “safe communication environment” for citizens will be created.

In July 2016, a package of anti-terrorism amendments was adopted, known as the “Spring Act”. The document also instructed telecom operators and ORIs to keep records of calls, the content of messages and other communications of users for six months. It entered into force on July 1, 2018.